first half
126
1.0
- noun
:
primera mitad
- In the first half of the game, the team scored three goals.
- the first half of the game
- the first half of the century
- the first half of the year
And it continues in the first half of the second act.
- And it continues in the first half of the second act.
- And he texted back the first half of the first chorus.
- But shit, Mahomes, after that first half, he was obsolete.
- And I will say the first half is stronger than the second-half.
- They started the first half really, really slow, right?
- I thought that the first half was a complete shit show.
- Black Stallion was such a good movie, but pretty much the first half of film is dialogue free.
- So I was in the first half of the season, a lot of time alone.
- Full disclosure, I was borderline bored reading it in the first half because it was so fucking detailed.
- I'm going to dwell on the second-half of that because the first half we don't have the time for.
- It's just not to the same way that it was for the first half of this year.
- May or later, that could be second-half, could be first half, I have no idea.
- But you can't totally smoke people out like in the first half, you know?
Examples
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He scored two goals in the first half.
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Late in the game's first half, Zack tackled a runner rushing toward the end zone.
Academic text (2011) -
So I was in the first half of the season, a lot of time alone.
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What an amazing end to this first half of play.
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And that gets tested certainly throughout the first half of the season.
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I learned more watching him in the first half than I did in five seasons.
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And the score is again tied here in the first half at the Palace.
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That ends the first half of play... ...with the score: Cleveland 17, Los Angeles 10.
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And what a first half he's had.
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They have built up a commanding lead in the first half.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'the initial period of two equal parts' is directly compositional from 'first' (preceding in time) + 'half' (one of two equal parts or timed period), so a learner who knows both words can derive the MWE's meaning. This construction is cross-linguistically common (e.g., Spanish 'primera mitad', French 'première mi-temps') and follows a predictable ordinal + portion pattern, making it immediately transparent to a B1 learner.
Etymology
First half comes from games that are split into two equal parts. The first half is the beginning part played before the break, so the phrase means the 'initial period' of the game.